Effort and Natures

Ruby and Sapphire introduced many strategical elements to the game, including 2-on-2 battles, Abilities and a ton of new moves with interesting effects. But two of the ones whose significance is hidden to the player are the subject of this section.

Effort values

Effort values are special hidden values that replace the Stat Experience of the first and second generation. Each and every Pokémon you battle gives the Pokémon that fought it a certain amount of Effort points in a specific stat. For example, if you defeat a Sceptile, the Pokémon you used will get three Effort points in Speed. Even if many Pokémon share the level experience, either due to the usage of an EXP. Share or simply because many Pokémon took part in the battle, all the Pokémon will get the same number of Effort points as one Pokémon would for battling it alone - so if you have a Pokémon holding an EXP. Share and another one of your Pokémon defeats a Sceptile, both of them will get three Effort points in Speed.

A Pokémon can only gain a total of 510 Effort points, and only 255 Effort points can go into one stat. The number of Effort points you have in a stat is called an Effort Value, abbreviated EV. For every four Effort points you have in a stat, that stat will be one point higher when your Pokémon reaches level 100. Because 255 can not be divided by four, filling up the last three is pointless - your Pokémon's stat will have reached its potential maximum at 252, 63 points higher than it would have been without any effort points at all. Then, if you max out two stats with 252 in each, you'll have six Effort points to spare which you can put into another stat to raise it by one. Of course, maxing out two stats means that the other four will be 63 points lower than their potential maximum.

Effort points can not be removed in Ruby, Sapphire, FireRed or LeafGreen, but in Emerald, six berries will lower your Effort Value in a stat by ten points. They are:

Natures

Natures can either be neutral or they can increase one stat while decreasing another. There is one nature for each possibility of increasing and decreasing a pair of stats, with HP excluded since natures never affect that.

Nature

Increases

Decreases

Hardy

None

None

Lonely

Attack

Defense

Brave

Attack

Speed

Adamant

Attack

Special Attack

Naughty

Attack

Special Defense

Docile

None

None

Bold

Defense

Attack

Relaxed

Defense

Speed

Impish

Defense

Special Attack

Lax

Defense

Special Defense

Serious

None

None

Timid

Speed

Attack

Hasty

Speed

Defense

Jolly

Speed

Special Attack

Naive

Speed

Special Defense

Bashful

None

None

Modest

Special Attack

Attack

Mild

Special Attack

Defense

Quiet

Special Attack

Speed

Rash

Special Attack

Special Defense

Quirky

None

None

Calm

Special Defense

Attack

Gentle

Special Defense

Defense

Sassy

Special Defense

Speed

Careful

Special Defense

Special Attack

Also, Pokémon have different PokéBlock preferences depending on their nature. I could include that in the table, but it's much simpler just to tell you what the rule is: Spicy (Cool) corresponds to Attack, Sour (Tough) to Defense, Sweet (Cute) to Speed, Dry (Beauty) to Special Attack, and Bitter (Smart) to Special Defense. Then a Pokémon with a given nature will like the flavor of PokéBlocks corresponding to the stat that its nature raises, and dislike the ones associated with the stat it lowers. Simple enough.

Usually, in competitive battling people prefer to use the natures that lower either Attack or Special Attack, depending on which the Pokémon will not attack with (because due to Effort values, both attacking stats can not be maximized without sacrificing all the other stats), and then raise a preferred stat based on how they're going to use the Pokémon - often either Speed or the other attacking stat. The one remaining Effort point that tends to be left is usually put into HP because while one extra HP can save you, one extra Defense or Attack is hardly going to change anything.

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